CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray.

That's about all the United States - or anyone for that matter - could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday.

An asteroid estimated to be have been about 55 feet in diameter exploded on February 15 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings. More than 1,500 people were injured.

Later that day, a larger, unrelated asteroid discovered last year passed about 17,200 miles from Earth, closer than the network of television and weather satellites that ring the planet.

The events "serve as evidence that we live in an active solar system with potentially hazardous objects passing through our neighborhood with surprising frequency," said Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat.

"We were fortunate that the events of last month were simply an interesting coincidence rather than a catastrophe," said Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, who called the hearing to learn what is being done and how much money is needed to better protect the planet.

NASA has found and is tracking about 95 percent of the largest objects flying near Earth, those that are .62 miles or larger in diameter.

The events "serve as evidence that we live in an active solar system with potentially hazardous objects passing through our neighborhood with surprising frequency," said Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat.

It appears Yahoo!News was shocked that a DemocRAT could say something that is even semi-intelligent. LOL! Otherwise, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson would have been enough.

7
posted on 03/19/2013 7:33:32 PM PDT
by FlingWingFlyer
(Whatever happened to the land of the free, home of the brave?)

I've been telling people for a long time that Space research is as important as the military. People foolishly think “how does blowing money up there help us here?” until a planet-killing or city-killing rock emerges from the depths of space and we lack the capability to do anything about it. With the current state of NASA, there is a good chance we won't even have a warning.

Actually, the Book of Revelation states that an asteroid (star) breaks into two pieces. The larger half strikes the land between the rivers ( Iraq) the other half strikes the Med. It’s one of the bowl judgements.

That’s obviously ridiculous — the object that detonated over Russia was only 50 feet across, and could easily be blasted to bits using conventional explosives. The problem is in detection, which has grown a lot since 1994’s SL-9 impact on Jupiter, but clearly it still lags when something this size comes in with no warning.

27
posted on 03/19/2013 7:45:17 PM PDT
by SunkenCiv
(Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)

And yet, they laughed and ridiculed Reagan’s Star Wars. Think of what could have already been even more advanced capabilities than we have if the goons in charge could have imagined other applications of the technology..

I don’t know. It would not take very much to nudge one off course. Besides the problem in being able to nudge (not trivial) you have to be sure you aren’t making matters worse :-)

I just think it is pathetic that we piss away so much in money and resources yet devote so little in defense against something that could wipe out the entire planet. This is an example of an global issue that governments and NASA should be focused on rather than monitoring the size of Big Gulps and other crap.

"We were fortunate that the events of last month were simply an interesting coincidence rather than a catastrophe," said Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, who called the hearing to learn what is being done and how much money is needed to better protect the planet."

So, we're told nothing about a maybe asteroid that is large and let's see how much money we need ... after telling us to pray ... let's start looking into the money we need to ....,

sheesh

38
posted on 03/19/2013 7:54:11 PM PDT
by knarf
(I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)

“The larger half strikes the land between the rivers (Iraq) the other half strikes the Med. Its one of the bowl judgements.”

“Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills [i.e. Rome] will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.”

Maybe it’ll strike Rome???

40
posted on 03/19/2013 7:55:00 PM PDT
by Jack Hydrazine
(It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)

Considering that the US has all but shut down it’s space program and there is no other country even remotely capable of accomplishing anything meaningful regarding an incoming asteroid ... mute point IMHO.

41
posted on 03/19/2013 7:56:38 PM PDT
by doc1019
(The rabbit hole that Obama is leading us down just gets deeper and deeper.)

Some believe that the object over Russia was indeed blasted to bits by some sort of munitions.. There are articles on the web discussing extraterrestrial intervention and even a photo of a craft visible in the area at that moment. Interesting stuff.

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